Chinese strategies: Communication key features from a business perspective Estrategias de marketing y comunicación en medios sociales chinos: características clave de comunicación des- de una perspectiva de negocio Xia He and Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez Xia He is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a researcher in the program of doctors training from Scholarship Council. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4092-0621 [email protected]

Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez is a professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He develops his teaching and research activities in the Digital and Interactive Formats Area and as a member of the DigiDoc Research Group. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6918-6910 [email protected]

Departamento de Comunicación, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Roc Boronat, 138. 08018 Barcelona, España

Abstract Some of the most attractive economies are located in emerging markets. In this sense, China is one of the most attractive markets in the world. The Web, especially social media, is a platform that can be used to penetrate these markets. Yet, many local and multinational enterprises, particularly the latter, know little about the relationship between Chinese social media and Chinese digital consumers. In this paper the unique Chinese social media landscape is introduced, and the profiles of Chinese digital customers are presented with the aim of informing enterprises about the key features of Chinese social media strategies. In addition, the predominant use of Chinese is elucidated and analyzed based on several case studies. We then the challenges for both local and multinational corporations when they are involved in Chinese social media marketing. We discuss current trends in Chinese social media, including cross-platform cooperation and integrated social media, group buying, and mobile social media. Finally, we offer recommendations for companies that wish to successfully engage with Chinese consumers through social media. Keywords Social media; Social media strategies; Social media marketing; Word-of-mouth; Social marketing plan; Business communica- tion strategies; Chinese digital consumer; China.

Resumen Algunas de las economías y mercados más atractivos se encuentran en los países emergentes. Este es el caso de China, que posee uno de los mercados más atrayentes a nivel internacional. La Web, y especialmente los medios sociales, han demos- trado ser una herramienta clave para penetrar en este mercado. Este artículo describe las principales características tanto de las plataformas sociales chinas como de sus usuarios. Lo hace con un enfoque corporativo, con la intención de dar a co- nocer a las empresas aspectos clave para sus estrategias de marketing y comunicación online. En este sentido, se mencionan las oportunidades que generan la integración de medios sociales y comercio electrónico, la compra en grupo, o tener pre- sencia en plataformas sociales adaptadas a dispositivos móviles. Además, se describen diferentes casos de estudio, todos ellos campañas de marketing de éxito, en los medios sociales chinos. El artículo concluye con algunas recomendaciones para aquellas empresas que deseen desarrollar una campaña de marketing en medios sociales de China.

Manuscript received on 08-12--2014 Approved on 18-02-2015

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Palabras clave Medios sociales; Estrategias en medios sociales; Marketing en medios sociales; Estrategias de comunicación empresarial; Boca-oído; Consumidores digitales chinos; China.

He, Xia; Pedraza-Jiménez, Rafael (2015). “Chinese social media strategies: Communication key features from a business perspective”. El profesional de la información, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 200-209. http://dx.doi.org/10.3145/epi.2015.mar.14

1. Introduction Gupta (2011) forecasted that revenue from , ga- mes, and subscriptions from global social media channels Social media (video sharing sites, wikis, photo sharing sites, would hit $29 billion by 2015; that is more than four times sites, microblogs, etc.) has already become a the amount from all of 2010. So, it seems that we are in part of daily life for many Internet users in the world. a new dynamic era of digital engagement and social media With the rapid development of social media a lot of corpo- plays an important role in this context. More and more com- rations use it to their advantage for their brands, services, panies are using social media applications to collect positive and public relations. At the same time, the public makes the and negative information about their products and services most of social media for daily life including online purcha- and to engage with their target audience. All these stra- sing, news reading, product information searching, and for tegies improve their brands’ awareness and market share many other services and forms of entertainment. (Abedniya; Mahmouei, 2010; Culnan; McHugh; Zubillaga, 2010; Moran; Gossieaux, 2010). The concept ‘Web 2.0’ was first presented in the O’Reilly It’s worth pointing out that in the context of globalization Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004 (Graham, 2005). Since the most attractive economies are located in emerging mar- then, Web 2.0 has led the evolution of social media (Kaplan; kets. China, as one of the most appealing markets, has been Haenlein, 2010). Currently, there are various social media drawing the attention of local and multinational enterprises, definitions; one of the most popular is: especially the latter with a focus on occidental corporations ‘Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that in China. According to the latest report on Internet deve- build on the ideological and technological foundations of lopment in China from China Internet Network Information Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user Center (CNNIC), Chinese Internet users’ numbers hit 618 generated content’ (Kaplan; Haenlein, 2010).’ million by the end of December 2013. The Internet penetra- tion rate was 45.8%. In the context of the enterprises these In his e-book, What is social media?, Mayfield (2008) indi- data show that 83.2% of the enterprises used the Internet cates social media has several features including participa- to conduct official business, 23.5% to perform online sales, tion, openness, and community; and six types of platforms and 20.9% to implement marketing and promotion (CNNIC, —social networks, blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums, content 2014a). communities, and microblogging. Kietzmann et al. (2011) describe seven functional blocks of social media: identity, This article begins by describing China’s unique social me- conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, dia landscape by reviewing its historical roots and drawing and groups. comparisons with its Western counterparts. In order to help local and multinational en- terprises better understand the key features of Chinese social me- dia the profiles of Chinese digital consumers are also presented and categorized into several different groups. Afterwards, the predomi- nant uses of Chinese social media marketing such as cross-platforms communication, group buying, and mobile social media marketing are discussed in several case studies. Moreover, this paper demonstra- tes the challenges that local and multinational enterprises may encounter while engaging with Chinese social media consumers. Finally, conclusions are drawn and some recommendations are made for marketers to formulate suitable http://www1.cnnic.cn Chinese social media strategies.

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2. China’s social media landscape Popular global social media platforms such as , , and YouTube dominate the occidental regions and several Asian countries. But most are inaccessible to the public in Chi- na. A brief summary of the history of Chinese social media is of importance to more fully un- derstand the unique and complex Chinese so- cial media landscape. The first bulletin board system (BBS) was built in 1994 and Chinese netizens quickly began to engage within online forums and communities; one such example was the famous BBS Xicihu- tong (xici.net). In the beginning of the 1990s computers were luxury products to the ordi- http://www.weibo.com/login.php?lang=en-us nary people of China—there were few Internet users. The real Internet boom in China began with the emergence of instant messaging (IM) with QQ, which was launched by in 1999. Millions of young people and college students started to chat with friends, or to make new friends, via the QQ platform, which was simi- lar to ICQ (I seek you). BlogChina (blogchina. com), another revolutionary tool, was released in 2002 by founder Fangxingdong. In addition to IMing, Chinese netizens were enthusiastic about blogging, social network sites (SNS), mi- croblogging platforms, and other social media applications. Relevant examples include the at- tractive social networking service Kaixinwang (.com) in 2008; the popular micro- blogging channel (d.weibo.com) in 2009; the convenient location-based servi- http://jiepang.com ce (LBS) (jiepang.com) and group bu- ying site (meituan.com) in 2010; and the fascinating mobile app Wechat platform (Weixin in China) in 2011. Nowadays, Chinese digital users normally have several social media accounts and integrate blogging, SNS, microblogging, online pictu- re sharing, and online video sharing. In fact, not only the normal Internet users, but also the professional news (for example: People’s daily) are accustomed to utilizing local social media applications to meet their needs (Lim, 2014). The landscape of Chinese social media is continuously undergoing fast-paced changes and has become a rich and diverse ecosystem of social media. Currently, Social media in China is experiencing http://www.kaixin001.com impressive growth. It is worth mentioning that Chinese social media applications are not copies of their innovations are even leading the global trend of social me- Western equivalents, but instead they are new creations dia development. For example, Weixin (similar to Whats- that have been innovated to meet Chinese netizens’ habits App) offers multiple features such as voice and text mes- and behaviour, even if they were initially built based on saging, shaking the handset to look for friends, as well as a some functions and characteristics of their Western coun- social networking function with the name WeChat friends. terparts (Sullivan, 2014). Today some Chinese social media The interesting features of this application have led some

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Table 1. Popular Chinese social media platforms with their occidental dard in China for every social media platform to have seve- counterparts ral ‘brands’ that belong to different companies. All Chinese Chinese social media Occidental social media tools are designed and built by local corpo- Social media types platforms counterparts rations. Therefore, China’s social media landscape has the Sina Weibo; following characteristics: unique, complex, fragmented, Microblogging Twitter Tecent Weibo and local. ; ; Social network sites Facebook 3. Chinese digital consumers Kaixin; WeChat friends In order to better understand Chinese social media marke- Video sharing sites Youku; Tudou YouTube ting and engage with Chinese digital consumers effectively it is necessary to explore users’ characteristics. Each social Photo sharing sites Bababian; Babidou Flickr media site attracts specific user groups (Sullivan, 2012), for Instant messaging QQ MSN instance, Renren (renren.com) serves mostly college stu- dents; QQ hosts a lot of lower income digital consumers Tianya Wenda; Q&A Answers who connect via mobile phones; and Sina Weibo attracts Zhidao white-collar employees with higher incomes and educatio- Hudong Baike; Wikis Wikipedia Baidu Baike nal backgrounds. The number of fans is an important indicator to test whether LBS Jiepang a social media user has received much attention. Moreover, contributions to social media development, which are com- posed of original content, forwarding content, and com- experts to consider it better than WhatsApp. Information ments can show clearly whether a digital account is active. about this leadership of Chinese platforms can be found Normally there exist several types of Chinese digital consu- even in the Spanish newspaper El pais (Aldama, 2013). As mers that can be identified by the number of followers and a result, China is becoming one of the most active players in their contributions. Table 2 presents a classification of Chi- the social media world. The following table (table 1) shows nese digital consumers. some of the most popular Chinese social media platforms alongside their occidental counterparts. 3.1. Celebrities and Web stars Celebrities and Web stars denote super stars and famous It should be kept in mind that almost everyone has a QQ persons respectively in cyber space. Normally, these people account in China and QQ is linked to Qzone (qzone.qq.com, have a tremendous amount of fans and followers on social a social network similar to Facebook). Both QQ and Qzone media platforms. belong to Tencent holdings. In this way, Qzone bears a sig- nificant user base. In addition, other top social networks Celebrities include singers, movie stars, writers, and sports in China include Kaixin and Renren. And the top two social stars and are well known to the public because they often media platforms are Weixin (355 million monthly active appear on TV and in magazines and newspapers. Although users) and Sina Weibo (129 million monthly active users) they contribute limited content, almost every comment (Xu, 2014). In general, the Chinese social media ecosystem and tweet they post may be reposted or retweeted by is very special and different from its counterparts in other numerous fans. It’s of no doubt that they have a huge in- countries. In fact, these platforms ‘live’ in a complicated, fluence on any topic of their choosing. Therefore, most of competitive, and quick changing environment. It is stan- them are opinion leaders. However, it’s important to point out that Web stars were normal peo- ple before they became famous. With their own purposes and motivations some conduct unusual and shocking activities with their backroom team’s planning and support. They contribute a lot to online communities’ hot topics and enrich the public’s leisure life. One example of a normal person turned Web celebrity is Fengjie, whose real name is Luo Yufeng; she became a Web star be- cause of her incredibly high standards for marriage-seeking. 3.2. Pundits / experts Pundits are highly qualified people who make their commentaries or viewpoints in a specific field in which they are con- sidered an expert. They tend to focus on http://www.weixin.com particular topics and give advice for neti-

El profesional de la información, 2015, marzo-abril, v. 24, n. 2. eISSN: 1699-2407 203 Xia He and Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez zens. They are also very active within Table 2. Classification of Chinese digital consumers the and participate Followers in in-depth discussion. In addition, they have great influence on purcha- Contributions Less More (Original content, se decisions for those Internet users Less Visitors; bystanders Celebrities forwarding content, who trust them. In other words, they comments) Web stars; pundits/ex- are the key opinion leaders and the More Content curators; retweeters main contributors of word-of-mouth perts in the digital era. Understanding the impact of electronic word-of-mouth is of importance for brands (Kozinets et al., 2010; Trusov; 3.4. Visitors Bucklin; Pauwels, 2009). Today, due to the context of the current specific and unique Chinese social culture, ordinary The quiet visitors spend some time daily viewing online con- Chinese citizens do not trust advertising information from such as news, product information, friends’ blogs, en- large institutions. According to the report Blue book of so- tertainment, and so on. But they seldom participate in the cial mentality: Annual report on social mentality of China conversation, discussion, or response. They are not very ac- (2012-2013) conducted by the Institute of Sociology under tive or noisy on the Internet. Normally they have their own the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the social trust in- ideas about products and services after reading relevant on- dex has declined further in China, reflecting the relationship line content. However, celebrities, pundits, and friends can between the authorities (officials, police, medical staff…) have positive influence over visitors. and the public (Wang; Yang, 2013). Currently, the public 3.5. Bystanders prefers word-of-mouth from social media channels and re- commendations from pundits, friends, and acquaintances. Bystanders are spectators who seldom spend time online reading network news or product information. They don’t 3.3. Content curators and retweeters like to follow others and have the least followers in return. The scholar Bhargava (2009) believed content curators would Moreover, they rarely participate in online discussions and be an important role in the future of social media and stated, online activities because they are inactive netizens. They do not engage in meaningful online discussions and they don’t ‘a content curator is someone who continually finds, post comments. Most do not even complete the registration groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant within an online community. They have the least influence content on a specific issue online’. on brands and services. Content curators reliably select quality materials and add Today, it’s essential to understand the Chinese digital gene- extra value to those materials. Moreover, they do this work ration, which includes those who were born in a peaceful continually. In contrast, retweeters are less professional period and grew up in the digital age. The digital generation than content curators, but they exist in huge numbers in is a major consumption force and will continue to be in the China. Retweeters are keen on reposting information such future. In the book Understanding China’s digital genera- as text messages, photos, jokes, and videos that they find tion — A marketer’s guide to understanding young Chinese on the social media channels of celebrities, Web stars, and consumers, the authors demonstrate that the young digital others. Although they seldom create original content, ret- generation enjoys the online activities of surfing, searching, weeters are still valuable for brands and services because and shopping (Schultz; Block; Schultz, 2013). most of them are active within online communities and maintain a large following in social media platforms. Finally, it is important to mention the large income gap between rural and urban areas in China. The imbalance of economic development has led to the existence of different user information behavior between cities and countryside. Table 3. Functions of Chinese digital consumers on social media platforms As noted in the report from CNNIC (2014b) rural users use PCs and tablets to get online less often than urban users. Profiles Functions Instead, they use mobile phones to access the Internet more Huge influence on topics they share; Celebrities Key opinion leaders frequently than users in cities. Furthermore, rural users spend five hours less online per week than urban users, and Web stars Huge influence on topics they share they make fewer e-commerce transactions. Great influence on purchase decision for their followers; Pundits/experts Contributors of electronic word-of-mouth; 4. Use of Chinese social media marketing Key opinion leaders It is important to be aware of the leading trends in the use of Content curators Reliable sources social media marketing in China. Only in this way can marke- Very active; Retweeters ters keep up with the times and run the appropriate online Maintain large following campaign. As stated in the mentioned report on Internet de- Not very active; Visitors velopment in China (CNNIC, 2014a), online shopping, group Have their own ideas on products buying, and mobile social media applications are booming Bystanders No currently in China.

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king channel. 1 (the first-genera- tion of Xiaomi smartphone) sales were robust as a result of social media marke- ting and hunger marketing (Shen, 2012). Xiaomi 2 (the second-generation ofXiao - mi smartphone) sales focused on micro- blogging marketing via direct vending on Sina Weibo platform in December, 2012. Sina Weibo released an advertisement, launched an online sales campaign, and built a booking page on the Weibo plat- form on December 19, 2012. Amazingly, Xiaomi sold out of their 50 thousands Mi2 handsets in just five minutes on De- cember 21, 2012 using Weibo wallet—an online payment system (Chow, 2013). This tremendous effect has been conti- nuing and a large number of comments http://quanguo.55tuan.com and retweets have been emerging in Sina Weibo. 4.1. The integration of social media and e-commerce 4.2. The boom of group buying to promote online purchasing With the inspiration of the great success achieved by group E-commerce plays an important role in China’s economy. purchase sites like , various group-buying sites are Due to the huge Chinese consumer base and the great on- popular in China such as 55tuan (55tuan.com), Lashou (las- line consumption force, Chinese e-commerce is predicted hou.com), and Meituan (meituan.com). These group buying to have sales hitting $420 billion, which is 20 percent hig- sites offer big discounts for a certain quantity of committed her than the US e-commerce market (Chiu; Lin; Silverman, pre-orders for items and activities such as travelling, cate- .(ring, and sports (Jing; Xie, 2011; Kauffman; Lai; Ho, 2010 .(2012 This attractive online sales concept has led to a boom in the Local firms have taken notice of the big opportunity to in- group purchase market in China. Chinese people prefer on- tegrate with e-commerce and sell their products directly line shopping because of the much lower group prices and online where digital consumers are searching for product more convenient express delivery. As noted in the report information via social media channels. Currently, micro- published by Tuan800.com (group buying navigation web- blogs are driving a significant amount of traffic for China’s site), Chinese group purchase transactions reached $5.94 e-commerce sites such as Tmall (tmall.com), Jingdong (JD. billion in 2013, which was 67.7 percent higher than the pre- com), and Taobao (taobao.com). In other words, microblogs vious year (Lee, 2014). The popularity of group purchase in are pushing forward the Chinese online consumer with links China is beyond many occidental people’s imaginations. to these popular e-commerce sites. Microblogs lead neti- zens to purchase via easy link clicks after exploring the pro- Group purchase owes its popularity to attractive low pri- ducts’ quality, price, after-sales service, etc., through two- ces—a result of the cooperation between group buying way communications (asking, discussing, opinion exchanging, etc.) on Weibo plat- forms. One representative case, from a brand that has had many successful business campaigns via Chinese social media, is from a Xiaomi online sales campaign. Xiaomi is a local brand that launched a smartphone with a media campaign in in August, 2011. Before and af- ter the smartphone’s launch there were numerous hot topics about Xiaomi´s rea- sonable price, clean interface, and nice quality, which were discussed on social media platforms. When Xiaomi opened the online reservation for purchase on September 5, 2011 via its official they received more than 300 thousand reservations within 34 hours. The com- pany was forced to close the online boo- http://beijing.lashou.com

El profesional de la información, 2015, marzo-abril, v. 24, n. 2. eISSN: 1699-2407 205 Xia He and Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez websites and other Chinese social media platforms. It’s very easy for netizens to log into the group shopping sites directly via their SNS or microblog accounts. Fur- thermore, Chinese digital consumers can share information about products or ser- vices from group purchase sites and can also look for participants for their deals through social media channels. The fo- llowing case highlights why group pur- chase is very appealing and successful in China: 200 Mercedes-Benz Smart cars were offered through group online shop- ping site Taobao.com on September 9, 2010. Taobao provided different types of discounts depending on the number http://bj.meituan.com of group online buyers. When group- buying participants reached 50 the price declined to 167,000 yuan (the original price was 176,000 creasingly popular in China. In particular, mobile e-com- yuan). When 200 participants committed to purchase the merce has been making great strides in the e-commerce price dropped to 135,000 yuan, which meant a 33 percent industry, which can partly be attributed to the maturing discount with the group buying power for those digital con- mobile payment system. sumers who committed to purchase aMercedes-Benz smart car. Finally 205 cars were sold in three and a half hours, 5. Challenges which made a new online buying record. It’s surprising that It is crucial to run a social media campaign to engage with the first car was sold after 24 seconds and 55 cars were sold digital consumers and accelerate brand awareness, which after six minutes (Liang, 2010; CNN, 2010). The cars were ultimately increases sales in the digital age. However, actual sold so fast that it was beyond the company’s expectations, operationalization of engagement, for both local enterpri- because on average Mercedes-Benz sells one Smart car per ses and multinational enterprises, faces many challenges. day in China (CNN, 2010). This online campaign demonstra- tes that group purchase is popular, not only for low priced 5.1. Challenges for the local enterprises products, but also for expensive goods such as cars and Social media is still a relatively new concept for many local home appliances because of the increase in the affluent firms because it has not gone through a long period of deve- class in China. lopment in China. In the beginning of the Web 2.0 era, most 4.3. The power of mobile social media marketing Chinese companies did not realize they would be starting a new marketing campaign and engaging with digital consu- The US Pew Research Center predicts mobile devices will mers. be the first choice for the majority of Internet users to get online in the world by 2020 (Anderson; Rainie, 2008; Ka- With the boom of blogs, a few corporations began to build plan; Haenlein, 2010). At present, handheld devices play an official corporate blog to enhance their brand awareness an important role in the daily life and also have a profound and enterprise culture. A thriving social media landscape influence on politics, economy, and culture. With the popu- began to take shape with the launch of microblogging and larity of smart phones, various mobile phone apps have be- SNS, capturing millions of Internet users. More and more lo- come the fastest growing part of the social media industry. cal enterprises have recognized the benefits of social media Kaplan defined mobile social media: marketing and have tried to engage with the existing and new customers via diversified social media platforms. Ne- ‘as a group of mobile marketing applications that allow vertheless, local companies are still facing some challenges the creation and the exchange of user-generated content’ in the process of running social media campaigns. Forres- (Kaplan, 2012). ter Research interviewed 24 leading local enterprises with In China, mobile Internet users had reached 500 million rich social media marketing experience and generated a re- by the end of 2013. Among all the Internet users, 81 per- port in 2013. As this report noted, Chinese companies face cent of them used mobile devices to access the Internet, mainly four big challenges in the usage of social media for according to the latest report from China Internet Network their brands and services (Dink in Forrester, 2013): Information Center (CNNIC, 2014a). In other words, Chine- Lack of clear social media strategies se people prefer mobile devices for surfing the Internet for entertainment and online purchases. As indicated in the Half of the 24 companies considered building an effective so- report, each day 75.6 percent of users used mobile brow- cial media strategy their biggest challenge. Due to the short sers for webpage browsing, news reading, etc. In addition, history of Chinese social media marketing and few successful mobile maps and mobile e-commerce are becoming in- cases, they have had to learn through trial and error.

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Difficulty to measure social media marketingff e orts 6. Conclusions and recommendations Most of the companies took into account increasing brand It has been found that the unique Chinese social media preference as their primary objective. However, 12 respon- landscape is very different from its Western equivalents. dents claimed they did not have an effective mechanism to Chinese digital consumers demonstrate unique Internet be- measure the social media marketing outcome. haviors and habits which result in distinctly different user Understaffing for social media team profiles as a result of differing internet customs and cultu- res. Cross-platform cooperation and integrated social me- Half of 24 local enterprises had a social media team with dia strategies have become the new trend in Chinese digital less than three employees. Understaffing is a common phe- marketing. Group purchase had promoted the rapid growth nomenon for local firms. of online shopping in recent years in China. Chinese mobile Lack of professional consulting from agency social media marketing is becoming more and more popular and alluring for brands and services. This new phenome- Generally, local enterprises don’t employ agencies to deal non implies that fingertips economy should not be ignored. with issues of originality, traditional media, and social media However, it’s worth pointing out that local and multinational in the Chinese market. In fact, only 11 firms confirmed they enterprises face some big challenges when they run social had hired agencies to handle social media marketing. media campaigns in the potential Chinese market. Based on 5.2. Challenges for the multinational enterprises our analysis, some relevant recommendations can be made for local and multinational corporations as they plan Chine- Marketers in the occidental region, America and Europe, se social media strategies. have achieved success by using powerful tools such as Face- book, YouTube, , and Twitter to run online campaigns 6.1. Do market research and digital consumer research in their region. But they face some new challenges when Before building the social media strategy, marketers need they play the Chinese social media game. to conduct some research to better understand the Chine- Unfamiliar with local social media platforms se market and online customers. Marketers can use tradi- tional methods to do this work, but they can also use web Multinational marketers are confronting an entirely new analytics tools that are supported by these platforms. Only social media ecosystem and they have to forget the most in this way can marketers obtain the relevant data and infor- recognized social media platforms in the West. Instead, they mation about their industries. Not only local companies, but need to know and consider new Chinese platforms with na- also multinational companies need to pay more attention mes like Sina Weibo, Tencent QQ, Renren, Kaixin, Youku, etc. to these primary investigations. Based on this research they can build a clear and effective social media strategy in the Lack of understanding of Chinese digital consumers Chinese market. Chinese digital consumers are different from their Western counterparts. Multinational enterprises have to give up the 6.2. Listen to WOM (word-of-mouth) approach they used with the occidental digital consumers. Marketers and digital consumers have known for years that So it is necessary for them to understand the Chinese neti- word-of-mouth has become the core point of growing in- zens’ habits and behavior in order to engage differently with terest. It’s no doubt that electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) their own target audience. has great influence on brands and services in the digital era (Dellarocas, 2003; Chu; Kim, 2011; Smith et al., 2007). On Difficulty to identify the right platforms the one hand, marketers consider that eWOM marketing is Many multinational enterprises are not clear about how to one of the most effective and cheapest methods of adverti- select the right social media platform for their business be- sing within online communities. On the other hand, online cause the Chinese social media landscape is more complex shopping buyers are inclined to believe eWOM and can ob- and fragmented than its Western counterparts. For instance, tain the relevant product information from other netizens’ Weibo (Twitter-style microblog) comprises Sina Weibo, Ten- positive or negative opinions.China Investment Corporation cent Weibo, Sohu Weibo, etc. Each of them attracts a different (CIC), a think tank based on Chinese social business, crea- group of digital consumers. So marketers need to choose the ted the similar concept of IWOM (Internet word-of-mouth) most suitable one to engage with their target audience. and proposed that it’s important to listen to IWOM, not only collect industry information, but also to evaluate a brand’s Difficulty to measure social media ROI (return on inves- online reputation (CIC, 2011). It’s advisable for marketers to tment) pay attention to IWOM while digital customers happily sha- This is similar to the challenge mentioned in section 5.1.. Ac- re and exchange their viewpoints on products and services cording to a social media marketing industry report (2013) online. from social media examiner, 87 percent of marketers have no 6.3. Identify the KOLs (key opinion leaders) idea how to measure their ROI for their social media cam- paigns. In the last three years this question has become a big In China social media KOLs have great influence on -pur problem for marketers (Stelzner, 2013). Multinational com- chase decisions for consumers due to particularities within panies have even more difficulty in measuring their social Chinese culture, where online shopping customers distrust media marketing efforts in the complex Chinese social media advertising and information from big institutions and autho- environment when compared to their domestic environment. rities. Regarding the users’ new media contact behavior, the

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Weighted and calculated needs theory for new media states Abedniya, Abed; Mahmouei, Sahar-Sabbaghi (2010). “The that users will seek and use an especial new media only when impact of social networking websites to facilitate the effecti- the conventional media fail to satisfy their specific need that veness of viral marketing”. Intl journal of advanced computer is important to realize their purpose in life (Zhu, 2004). In science and applications, December, v. 1, n. 6, pp. 139-146. China, digital users adopt and use social media to satisfy a http://goo.gl/UHIATx certain need when the relevant information and advertising http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2010.010621 from formal institutes cannot meet their requirements. In Anderson, Janna Q.; Rainie, Lee (2008). The future of the fact, they prefer to purchase products that are recommended internet III. Pew research internet project. by key opinion leaders on social media channels. These KOLs http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/ may be celebrities, pundits, Internet influencers, Web stars, Reports/2008/PIP_FutureInternet3.pdf.pdf or trend-setters who are active and influential within online communities. They share their product experience, contribu- Bhargava, Rohit (2009). “Manifesto for the content curator: The te professional information, and even provide purchase advi- next big social media job of the future”. IMG, September 30. ce to their followers. All these online behaviors greatly affect http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2009/09/manifesto-for-the- consumers’ purchase decisions. Therefore, marketers must content-curator-the-next-big-social-media-job-of-the-future.html know and find the key opinion leaders in their industries and Chiu, Cindy; Lin, Davis; Silverman, Ari (2012). China’s social- social media applications, and then maintain a good relation- media boom. McKinsey & Company. ship with those KOLs. https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/mckinseychinavideos/ 6.4. Mind the young generation PDF/McKinsey-Chinas-Social-Media-Boom1.pdf Today social media is indispensable to the public in China, Chow, Low-Lai (2013). “How brands can use Sina Weibo to especially to the young generation who grew up in the di- reach Chinese consumers”. Warc. Event reports. Festival of gital era; they are inclined to focus on individual character media Asia, March. development and a certain kind of freedom of expression. http://goo.gl/Cn531E Social media platforms offer personal space for the young Chu, Shu-Chuan; Kim, Yoojung (2011). “Determinants digital generation in which they can have not only have more of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth privacy and liberty, but also make their own decisions. Mo- (eWOM) in social networking sites”. Intl. journal of adverti- reover, the digital young generation knows how to handle sing, v. 30, n. 1, pp. 47-75. social media tools and adapts faster to new tools than prior http://goo.gl/SjUHTG generations. Therefore, it’s necessary to mind the young ge- http://dx.doi.org/10.2501/IJA-30-1-047-075 neration when companies prepare to run online campaigns. CIC (China Investment Corporation) (2011). From social me- 6.5. Attend social media marketing training courses dia to social business, topic one: an overview of the evolution In order to run more efficient social media campaigns some of Chinese social media. A CIC social business white paper. marketers have started to participate in professional digital http://vdisk.weibo.com/s/9EcVm marketing courses, e.g. microblogging marketing courses, CNN (2010). “Taobao sells 205 Benzes in just over three SNS marketing courses, search engine marketing courses, hours”. CNN, September 17. etc. Considering that multinational enterprises normally http://travel.cnn.com/shanghai/shop/taobao-sells-205- lack an understanding of Chinese social media tools and benzes-just-over-three-hours-653638 digital customers, marketers can substantially benefit from rd these professional training courses. Aiming to expand Chi- CNNIC (2014a). The 33 statistical report on internet develo- nese market share further, several British companies such as pment in China. China Internet Network Information Center. Harrods, Westfield, and Merlin Group participated in the mi- http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201404/ croblogging marketing course that was held by Sina Weibo U020140417607531610855.pdf business school in London in 2013 (Zhou, 2013). This kind of CNNIC (2014b). The report on internet development in rural training course can help multinational enterprise managers China in 2013. 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